Apple's exclusive telco deals bad for user

Apple's autocratic control over which network it will allow its iPhone to run on is getting its users miffed. A survey has revealed that more than half of iPhone users would spurn AT&T, as if it were a rabid dog, if Steve Jobs had not signed up to an exclusive deal.

The study from professionals service firm Deloitte said that they would prefer to use Verizon Wireless as a service provider. Ed Moran, director of insights and product innovation at Deloitte said that if Jobs backs down on exclusive deals and gives the iPhone to other carriers you would probably see a number of defections. AT&T's Chief Executive Randall Stephenson had been playing down the potential impact of the loss of iPhone exclusivity at a Goldman Sachs conference on Tuesday. Stephenson said about 80 percent of AT&T's iPhone users were either in family plans making it difficult to cancel service or had received their phone through their business. Basically they had already been suckered into selling their souls to AT&T, thanks to Apple, so they were contractually stuck with it.

The Deloitte study also found that 55 percent of respondents would give Apple's iPad a miss. The online survey, conducted between June 29 and July 11, asked 2,000 U.S. consumers between 14 years old and 75 years old about how they used their mobile devices.